China Social Science Review

No.3, 2022

Realizing a Breakthrough in Legal Epistemology through Sequentiality

(Abstract)

Gao Yangguang

Premodern jurisprudence had yet to make a strict distinction between normativity and the life world. Instead, it sought solutions to real-world issues by resorting to the historical context from a standpoint of relatively vague sequentiality. This approach is more in line with natural thought than with artificial thought. Classical Roman law, traditional Chinese law, and early modern Anglo-American legal thinking, with its roots in the premodern era, can be understood as normative expressions embedded in historical situations. Moreover, future jurisprudence shows similar unstructured characteristics at the epistemological level. Sequentiality-based epistemological critiques present the possibility of reconciling the tension between normativity and the life world, providing modern jurisprudence with a reflective approach amidst crises.